Lily Allen Tells Calais Migrants: ‘I Apologise on Behalf of My Country’

British singer Lily Allen has apologised “on behalf of my country” to an Afghan teenager while visiting the notorious Calais ‘Jungle’ migrant camp in northern France.

The singer, who spoke to the 13-year-old boy while filming for the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire Show, broke down in tears as she heard how he had travelled from Afghanistan.

She told the boy the UK had “bombed your country, put you in the hands of the Taliban and now putting you at risk, risking your life to get into our country.”

“I apologise on behalf of my country. I’m sorry for what we’ve put you through,” she added.

Her apology has angered social media users, however.

One called for Lily Allen to “put away the crocodile tears and speak for herself” as she “represents nobody” while another joked: “On behalf of England, we apologise for Lily Allen.”

Her film comes as French authorities begin dismantling the camp and sending the migrants to various centres across the country.

The policy is proving controversial, however, as small communities react angrily to having migrants forced on them by the government in Paris.

In the town of Forges-les-Bains, locals took to the street to protest the arrival of 44 Afghan men to a new migrant centre. Around 250 people carried banners denouncing the “imposition” of the migrants by the government.

“The state forced this centre on us but I for one don’t intend to put up and shut up,” said one local.

Critics of the Socialist government warned last month that the policy could spark “civil war” and communities across the country become increasingly resentful.

A spokesman for the establishment conservative Republicains party accused the government of wanting to create “hundreds of Calais (camps) distributed across the country”, saying the policy “does nothing other than create conditions for national disunity and therefore a civil war.”